Diagnose this problem...

[David]

Dell Inspiron 600m Laptop...Windows XP...1 year old.

Problem started last week. I have the lappy set to only a screensaver after 30 minutes of inactivity. I came downstairs last week to what appeared to be a complete display shut off....green power light for the hard drive was still on. Wiggling the mouse does nothing so I do a hard reboot. Surf the net for about 10 minutes and screen disappears again. Was time for work so I shut her down.

Came home that night and booted up and started running a norton system scan. Display shuts off again...hard drive remains active via the green power light. Then...I take a closer look and can barely make out the norton scanning box on my desktop. I turn on the overhead light and stick my nose to the screen...I can barely make out my icons on my desktop also!

So...it is like this: the display isn't really shutting off. Whatever the hell makes the illumination/glowing on the monitor is the culprit. Any advice or do I need to call a repair shop.

And yes...it is out of warranty. It was actually 1 day out of warranty when I called dell but that is a whole nother story!

 

[cvm4]

Ouch..Out of warranty sucks David! Hopefully someone can help.

 

[caudio51]

Sounds like a monitor issue. Do you have another that you can try?

 

[joshua]

Can you hook up a monitor to it? Theres some kind of light that illuminates the display, that probably is goin dead or went dead.

 

[David]

Can you hook up a monitor to it? Theres some kind of light that illuminates the display, that probably is goin dead or went dead.

Brought home an external monitor Thursday night and it works flawlessly.

Are we talking big bucks for the illumination light if it needs to be replaced?

 

[caudio51]

Not sure on the cost or replacement of the illumination light. With the prices of monitors these days it's probably cheaper to get a new monitor.

 

[derek]

We have about 40 of those 600m at work. All have been under warranty, but we have had over 20 of the monitor replaced. They never gave us answer, just that it is under warranty and they will fix it. Same thing happened that you have happening to yours.

One of the repair techs said one of the compasitors must not be fully blown, so when it heats up it shuts off, cause the monitor to stop illuminating.

 

[David]

I will wait a couple of weeks since I sent a letter to Dell HQ's expressing my disgust that they would not help a person with a laptop that was 24 hours out of warranty (that is not an embellishment).

I also stated that as a teacher it was my prerogative to pass on to all the faculty, students, parents, and community members what kind of service they gave me on the issue.

We'll see if I get a rise out of them or if it is a lost cause.

 

[derek]

Good luck with that. They have jerked us around so much over the past 2 years. I will never buy another Dell, nor will most of the people in our company.

 

[Jwrussell]

Dell's nothing but a bargain computer shop anymore. Everything's price with them, service comes in last.

Sounds like the backlight is out Dave. Backlights don't cost much, but then again I only deal in wholesale so...

Good luck with this Dave. Wish I had some real advice.

 

[cvm4]

Yea like I've said before, Dell's customer service sucks ass. Good luck with that David.

 

[Cigar_Jack]

Backlight went out, I see this all the time. If warrenty won't fix it, it isn't worth fixing I bet. Ask for an estimated cost if you have to send it in for repairs. I'm usually not a big fan of the extended warrenties at Best Buy but of laptops they are almost worth it. So if it is going to cost over $400 to fix I'd go get a Compaq, HP, or Gateway laptop from Best Buy and get the extended Warrenty. It will cover a backlight going out.

Do not get a Toshiba they have a badly designed Power Jack that likes to break off with very little usage.

 

[David]

Backlight went out, I see this all the time. If warrenty won't fix it, it isn't worth fixing I bet. Ask for an estimated cost if you have to send it in for repairs. I'm usually not a big fan of the extended warrenties at Best Buy but of laptops they are almost worth it. So if it is going to cost over $400 to fix I'd go get a Compaq, HP, or Gateway laptop from Best Buy and get the extended Warrenty. It will cover a backlight going out.

Do not get a Toshiba they have a badly designed Power Jack that likes to break off with very little usage.

Laptop is 1 year old and cost over $1,000 so I am willing to sink a little money into it. If they tell me $400 bucks for repair, I'd be tempted to buy a flat screen monitor and hook it up to it.

 

[derek]

I see a new 30 inch flat screen in your future

 

[DocLogic77]

It does sound like a monitor issue. I had a similar issue with odd colors on my monitor. Bring up your monitor menu and perform a degauss. I have no idea what it is I hit it by accident. But it cleared up my issue. Try it...it cant hurt.

 

[mitchthephoneman]

I own nothing but Toshiba Satellites....A little flimsy but works like a charm.....

 

[gui_tarzan]

We have some old Dell laptops and a batch of desktops but I'll never buy them again. We only bought them because Gateway didn't return a bid one summer. Other than that, Gateway is all we buy. Dell's tech support SUCKS! I've had so much trouble with them over the years we've had their machines. I swear to God if every other computer company went out of business I'd give up computing rather than buy another Dell. My Gateway computers AND their tech support have been outstanding for the ten years we've purchased from them.

Ok, back to the question. I had a student poke a hole in a Samsung LCD screen. I called Samsung to get a price on a replacement LCD panel - $700!!!!! It was more than the monitor cost! Check eBay for a dead laptop like yours, you can sometimes buy them for a hundred or so with a good screen.

 

[gui_tarzan]

Wait a sec... a one year warranty????? All of our machines have at least a three year.

 

[David]

Mine had the standard 1 year...bought on May 9, 2005. Screen went out on May 10th, 2006.

 

[joshua]

You might be able to find a local shop and ask if they can repair it cheaper than dell quotes you if they wont cover the repair under warranty. Sometimes you can buy a similar model off ebay that doesn't work and use parts from it, but thats a bit advanced technically.